The Media Innovation was in Berlin at the beginning of October, supporting partner SME Thomas Buchanan creative agency and the NewsThings project The World Publishing Expo and Digital Content Expo.

Bringing together the print and content industries for three days of expo-ing and conferencing, the event sees at around 5,000 participants from the publishing and print industry, which is organised by the World Association of Newspapers and Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

This year the Media Innovation Studio was invited to nominate a start-up firm who would gain access to the Expo, and have a free space in the dedicated Start-up village thanks to its partnership with WAN-IFRA’s Global Alliance of Media Innovation. Collaborator Thomas Buchanan, a creative and innovation agency based in Bristol, who has worked on multiple Media Innovation Projects including NewsThings and EKKO and Interface of Things, headed to Berlin to pitch and network with a range of publishers from around the globe.

Tom Metcalfe, founder and director of Thomas Buchanan, brought a range of prototypes from NewsThings, and other Internet of Things projects, to demo to the media execs, senior editorial staff and representatives from the print industry.

John Mills, lecturer and researcher within the Media Innovation Studio, said: “We’ve worked closely with Tom and his agency for a number of years, and were delighted to connect him with the wider publishing industry via the Global Alliance for Media Innovation.”

“The start-up village was an opportunity for start-ups to network and connect with a range of key industry figures, and it’s important to the Studio to assist industry by acting as a link between publishers and innovative start-ups that think, work and produce in novel and innovative ways.”